This past Thanksgiving weekend, I found plenty to be thankful for. We usually have a traditional turkey dinner at home with my immediate family and folks. However, my father was not able to make it back home in time for Thanksgiving, so we will celebrate with him when he visits in November during American thanksgiving. That gave us the opportunity to say yes to a family gathering with my cousins in Toronto. They are probably the closest relatives I have, and this year was an exciting gathering since there are finally some cousins for my little guys to play with, albeit a very young one. My niece is only two weeks old. However, another baby is on the way via another close cousin. They decided to do their baby’s gender reveal at the family gathering this weekend. Since my cousins all seem to be pregnant or are thick in the newborn stage, I thought I would offer my services to do the gender reveal for them. I thought about doing a cake, but felt that might be too cliché (just kidding; nobody wants to eat my cakes, except for my children. Bless them.)

I like to get my craft on, so I wanted to try my hand at making a piñata. First I had to think about what shape to make it. After consulting with my 3 year old who is currently obsessed with all things rainbows, we settled on (big surprise) a rainbow. I thought it was fitting since this would be my cousin’s rainbow baby. I knew I had to put a lot of love into this creation. The piñata had to be a fair size since I wanted to stuff it with balloons, candies and even some baby gear like a onesie. I found the biggest box I could find in my attic and flattened it. I looked for a large circular item in my home. Some bloggers suggested using frying pans, however I wanted something bigger, so I cleaned the lid of my garbage bin (about 50cm in diameter), and used it trace half a circle. I then cut it out using scissors, although it would be handy to have an x-acto knife too. I also cut out a long rectangular shape about 20cm wide and 100cm long for the arc of the rainbow. I cut out another 20cm x 50cm rectangle to be the bottom of the rainbow.

At first, I was going to make a traditional piñata. The kind you have to break open with a bat. However, after working on this project with my son, he expressed a desire to keep the rainbow. So we scratched the idea of destroying it, and turned it into a trap door piñata. This is what took the longest to figure out. Since it was more than just candy, and some bigger items had to fit through, the trap door had to be large. So I decided to make the whole bottom of the rainbow fall out when the strings were pulled. My husband and I had to put our thinking caps on, but basically what we did was thread through 6 pieces of string on both sides of the pinata. On one side, we tied the string to the box. On the other side, we looped the string through the holes but didn’t tie them. I held the looped strings together with a stick and some tape until the big reveal. I left the trap door off the piñata until the very end of building it, since I would have to stuff it before securing it. After assembling the piñata, then came the fun part. I got to paper mache the heck out of it with newspaper. While it dry, I started to cut out the tissue paper. I decided to scallop the ends of the paper for the top of the piñata. Then for the actual rings of the rainbow, I cut out small squares of paper and fringe cut the ends. My son helped with gluing all the colourful pieces on. This is what took the longest, but it truly was a labor of love having him work on it with me.

When we finally finished putting together the piñata, I wrapped it up in tissue paper and cellophane. At the actual party, I told my cousin this gift was something for the baby, rather than the gender reveal. Her older sister, my other close cousin baked a cake for her, which everyone assumed was the actual reveal. When my cousin and  her husband cut into the cake, they were so puzzled when it was revealed to be a rainbow cake (because they were definitely not have quadruplets).

That was my cue. I grabbed the huge gift and unveiled that it was actually a piñata. Since I didn’t have a chance to hang it, my husband acted as the “hook” while I prepared the trap door. The on the count of 3, they pulled the strings to reveal baby’s identity…

I am pretty pleased to be an aunt to a baby boy come February, 2018. And it makes it that much more special that I got to be the one to tell these new parents a big part of who their baby is in such a creative way. Even though some people might find it frivolous or over the top to throw a gender reveal party, I think any reason to celebrate new life is always a welcome and joyful occasion to gather with loved ones. How about you? Did you do a gender reveal? If so, tell me how!